Rumor: Gander Outdoors is getting rid of all of their Shooting/Hunting sections

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Aim1

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So at my local Gander Outdoors (formerly Gander Mountain) in Forest Lake, Minnesota, has all of their shooting, hunting, and fishing sections on huge markdowns. Most of the shooting, hunting, and fishing stuff is gone.

I spoke to the employee and he said they were liquidating everything and the plan is to bring the fishing section back with different merchandise but not the shooting or hunting section.

The employee made it seem like regulations on that stuff was making too hard to sell.

Also, Gander Outdoors now makes the vast majority of their money selling campers and the fishing section and others are really outliers.


Anyone else hear this?


With Bass Pro/Cabelas buying Sportsman's Warehouse this is really a shame.
 
Man, it seems like all the Major sporting goods shops are struggling to be good for shooters & reloaders. The local Cabelas has limited reloading stuff since Bass Pro bought them out & their prices are way higher. This was before COVID.
I now buy from Sportsmans even though their prices are rough, but at least they have a good selection and have stuff in stock.
 
Walmart got rid of all it's "tactical" gear. Mostly reverted back to what it carried before making the misstep of getting into it. I found things marked down in stores that had never been put on display. I believe local managers were really the obstacle - quart of bread and gallon of milk thinking.

For Gander to remove a significant amount of it's firearms products, it is likely based on their uncompetitive pricing and lack of effort marketing locally. How could you not be turning over merchandise in a panic market? Also goes to their buying - were they ratio'd to the point of inaccessability by wholesalers?
 
Walmart got rid of all it's "tactical" gear. Mostly reverted back to what it carried before making the misstep of getting into it. I found things marked down in stores that had never been put on display. I believe local managers were really the obstacle - quart of bread and gallon of milk thinking.

For Gander to remove a significant amount of it's firearms products, it is likely based on their uncompetitive pricing and lack of effort marketing locally. How could you not be turning over merchandise in a panic market? Also goes to their buying - were they ratio'd to the point of inaccessability by wholesalers?

It could also be corporate management caving to antigun groups or even staff.

Wal Mart got rid of handgun and 5.56/7.62x39 because it's progressive management staff threatened to all quit if the CEO didn't cave to their demands.
 
I see it as a product of online shopping. Physical store retail is dying, sporting goods stores are feeling it too.
 
So at my local Gander Outdoors (formerly Gander Mountain) in Forest Lake, Minnesota, has all of their shooting, hunting, and fishing sections on huge markdowns. Most of the shooting, hunting, and fishing stuff is gone.

I spoke to the employee and he said they were liquidating everything and the plan is to bring the fishing section back with different merchandise but not the shooting or hunting section.

The employee made it seem like regulations on that stuff was making too hard tosell.

Also, Gander Outdoors now makes the vast majority of their money selling campers and the fishing section and others are really outliers.


Anyone else hear this?


With Bass Pro/Cabelas buying Sportsman's Warehouse this is really a shame.
Personally, I don’t care if all of the big shots close down....don’t need ‘em, and don’t buy from any of them. I buy only from private local gun shops. If they don’t have it, then I use something else or do without. I’ve been doing this for many years and am a happy, satisfied, well armed and supplied man.
 
I'm not price shopper....look for quality and features first. Never thought Gander had much to begin with, mostly mid-to-low end merchandise. Scheels on the other hand is doing a booming business with mid-to-high end products. Have one of the best gun, accessories, and reloading selections of any I've seen.
 
Gander Mountain (Gander Outdoor) did that almost two years in my neck of the woods.
I did manage to buy 5 St Croix premiere rods at half price and a few other odds and ends fishing gear at half too.
 
Gander did not last here in my area. I never bought anything as prices were to high. Academy and my locals had better deals...

Gander actually had some really great prices at times.


I bought 2 Savage 220 Bolt Action shotguns from them a few years ago. Cheaper than Sportsman's Guide with a deal even.
 
Just look at the numbers of hunters and fisherman. Decline, decline, and more decline. Kids today are playing video games, the money into addictive video gaming is beyond comprehension.

The money is not in hunting or fishing and what I saw over the years in local sport shops, was a minimization of guns and reloading equipment, and a replacement of that space with trendy sports clothes, shoes and gear.

You want to make money, then find a niche selling items to morbidly obsessive kids with diabetes. At least the Chinese Government recognizes the threat video gaming is having on their children and the future of their society, by limiting the number of hours kids can play during the week to three, and the maximum in any one day to 1.5 hours.
 
I spoke to the employee and he said they were liquidating everything and the plan is to bring the fishing section back with different merchandise but not the shooting or hunting section.

The employee made it seem like regulations on that stuff was making too hard to sell.

Who was the employee? A college student working part time or the store manager? I don't see any regulations making "that stuff" hard to sell. It selling so fast is why there is nuttin' left on the shelves. Those stores that have gone out of the gun and ammo business have done it on political or social beliefs of the stockholders/ownership. G.O. may not be able to make enough profit on ammo to justify shelf space to compete with online sellers, but I doubt very much of it has to do with any kind of regs.
 
Gander here in upstate NY (just south of Albany) in the big sales process of getting rid of all their hunting, fishing, guns, ammo. Very little left, campers only.
 
I remember when Gander Mountain first came to NE Ohio where I grew up in the early ought's. I got great deals on guns (new and used), ammo and reloading supplies not to mention clothing for everyday and hunting. I loved that store and it was only about two miles from my house and on the way home from work. Then a few years later it suddenly became progressively more expensive, they would no longer make deals on used gun that sat on the rack for enough time. I slow shopped there less and less then moved down here to Alabama just about the time they hit real finacial trouble. I got to the Gander Mounting down here once before they closed it.
 
Somehow I got on a recent Gander Mtn mailing list and frankly the advertised prices I saw have not been compelling enough to search out an elusive storefront to my location. Marcus Lemonis is restructuring inventory with high profit items to complement Camping World on his way to driving the business out of business, IMHO.
 
I will not miss them . They had a store here and it didn’t last very long . Everything was overpriced , especially the firearms . When they closed the little LGS moved into the building and the parking lot filled up . They must not be doing something right . They have become more like Dick’s Sporting Goods IMO .
 
I remember seeing a couple Gander Mountain catalogs as a kid in the 80's / early 90's. In the post-2000 era, they opened a couple stores in Denver Metro that seemed to be pretty high priced on guns with occasional deals on ammo. They sometimes stocked loads that were not super common to see on the shelf (for example CCI SGB .22). I believe they announced the opening of another store (Parker?) and then announced they were all going out if business a few months later. With Camping World ownership, I can completely see them going to a business model servicing the "vanlife" market (think Gabby Petito)- icky guns and bullet shells are not welcome.
 
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